"We came out flat, and we knew it," said Skyview's Wayne Maxwell. "(Kenai) tends to get that lucky number four up on the board really fast."

In fact, the Kardinals had a 1-0 lead after the first period and stretched it to 4-0 with three second-period tallies. Kenai goaltender Steven Campanella stopped a pair of point-blank Panther scoring bids in the closing minutes of the second period, and the Kardinals kept Skyview off the scoreboard until 5:36 had elapsed in the final period.

"The first two periods, I was real happy with the kids," said Kenai coach Brian Gabriel Sr. "We moved the puck real well, and we seemed to know where everybody was at. We backchecked and forechecked, and that work paid off."

Kenai's Adrian Borchgrevink and Boone Hall celebrate one of Hall's two goals Friday in front of Skyview's Chris Huston and goalie Mike Bell.

Photo by M. Scott Moon

Defenseman Brian Gabriel Jr. put the Kardinals on the board midway through the first period. Gabriel Jr. carried the puck deep into the Panthers' zone and threw a shot at the net from a wide angle. Skyview goalie Mike Bell appeared to have made the save, but the puck trickled out behind him and across the goal line.

Boone Hall tallied twice for the Kardinals in the second period. He potted his first goal at 6:46, collecting the puck near the left circle and cutting in front of the Skyview crease. He beat Bell with a backhand shot. Hunter Sirois and Gabriel Jr. picked up assists on the play.

Hall's second goal, a power-play tally, came with 10:09 gone in the period, when the big Kenai forward found himself in perfect position to knock home a rebound. Adrian Borchgrevink and Gabriel Jr. assisted on the score.

Borchgrevink closed out the second-period scoring with 2:14 left before the intermission, handling another rebound before slipping it past Bell with a backhand. Hall and Owen Brewer notched assists on the goal.

"I'm pretty happy with our line out there," said Brewer, who has Borchgrevink and Hall on his line. "We've been scoring a lot more goals than last year. We just put Boone right in front of the net. He and Adrian are the goal scorers."

Brewer serves as the set-up man, and demonstrated his skills with an assist on Borchgrevink's short-handed goal early in the third period. Brewer got his stick on the puck near the blue line in his own zone, and had a step on the Panthers' point men as he streaked up the center of the rink.

Bell came out of his crease and poked the puck to the corner, but lost his stick in the process. Brewer, the first player into the corner, looked up to see Borchgrevink trailing the play and slid the puck back in front of the net. Bell was in his crease without a paddle, and Borchgrevink deked once and tucked the puck home.

"We put him out on the penalty kill, and he's such an offensive threat," Gabriel Sr. said of Brewer. "On one of their power plays, I think he had more chances than they did. He'll find a way to fish the puck out. Whenever he's out there, you get a good feeling as a coach that he'll make a positive out of a negative."

The Panthers found their legs in third period, though. After being out-shot 26-11 through the first two periods, Skyview matched the Kardinals with eight shots in the third.

"We tried to come out in the second like we came out in the third," Maxwell said. "We just relaxed on the bench and started to communicate. Our second line (Taylor Adams, Jake Satathite and Mitch Burdick) actually got us going."

Maxwell scored Skyview's first goal of the game on a power play with 9:24 left in the third. Maxwell won a faceoff and went straight to goal with the puck.

"I saw that their center was lined up to go the other way," Maxwell said. "Shot and rebound -- that's what we're aiming for."

Lucas Fellman netted the final goal of the game, finishing off a John Friemering shot that was bouncing around the bodies in front of Campanella.